‘Judicial supervision of decision-making powers is often associated with administrative law. However courts also review the exercise of discretions in other fields. For example courts review powers exercised by trustees, and indeed much of equity might be characterised as a law of administration. Our focus here will be the legal principles sourced in the law of contract which regulate the exercise of powers of decision, including discretions, under contracts (‘contractual review’) and the interrelationship between these principles and those common law principles regulating exercise of administrative powers under statute (‘administrative law review’).’

‘The rare simultaneous occurrence of two otherwise common events was an ‘abnormal occurrence’, which did not put the charterers of a ship which ran aground in port in breach of the ‘safe port’ warranty they gave to the owners.’

‘The supply of “bunkers” of marine fuel on credit for immediate use was not governed by the 1979 Sale of Goods Act, leaving the shipping company in debt to the bank which has taken over the liabilities of the insolvent bunker supplier, the UK’s highest court has confirmed.’

‘A High Court judge “overcomplicated matters” by attempting to develop a set of principles governing whether the innocent party to a breach of contract should have its award of damages reduced to reflect a benefit it obtained from that breach of contract, an expert has said.’

‘The time bar prescribed by article 16 of the Convention relating to the Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by Sea, scheduled to the Merchant Shipping Act 1979, for the bringing of claims against a carrier did not apply to claims against a carrier for contribution in respect of the liability of others to the passenger.’

‘What does the law say about commercial ship captains’ duty to help those they find in distress at sea? Captain Andy Lewington explains how he, and his 18 man crew, took aboad more than 400 migrants in the seas north of Tripoli earlier this year. And Stephen Fietta a lawyer at Volterra Fietta, explains the legal position.’

‘The rules which applied to the construction of contracts generally were applicable to the construction of a bill of lading and required the words of the bill to be looked at as a whole in their context. Applying that approach, a clause in the printed conditions of carriage in a bill of lading which expressly incorporated “all terms and conditions, liberties and exceptions of the charterparty … including the law and arbitration clause” had the effect of incorporating into the bill an English law and exclusive jurisdiction clause in the charterparty.’

‘The expression “completion, by delivery of the bill, of any indorsement of the bill” in section 5(2)(b) of the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1992 meant that completion of an indorsement by delivery required the voluntary and unconditional transfer of possession by the holder to the indorsee and an unconditional acceptance by the indorsee.’

‘It is in principle possible to constitute a limitation fund under the International Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims 1976, scheduled to the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, by means of a guarantee in the form of a letter of undertaking provided by a protection and indemnity club.’

“The off-hire clause in clause 15 of the New York Produce Exchange 1946 (‘NYPE’) form of time charterparty was concerned with the service immediately required of the vessel, and not with ‘the chartered service’ as a whole or the entire maritime adventure or adventures which might be undertaken in the course of the chartered service. The clause concentrated on the period during which full working of the vessel was prevented or stopped.”

A shipowner was entitled (1) to refuse to deliver up cargo covered by a bill of lading to the consignee under that bill, in exercise of its lien for general average contribution for that cargo, notwithstanding receipt of an unlimited guarantee from the insurers of the cargo undertaking in consideration of delivery to pay any general average contribution due in respect of the cargo; and (2) to recover storage and other expenses incurred by it in exercising its lien after the cargo was discharged from the vessel.

“The consequences of Margaret Thatcher’s administration have been long lasting. In many areas of national life Thatcher took the British Bulldog by the scruff of the neck and house-trained it. In the context of the constitution her impact was no less significant.”

“A provision in a marine cargo insurance policy excluding loss resulting from any inherent inability of the goods to withstand a voyage applied only where the goods had deteriorated, not because they had been subjected to some external fortuitous accident or casualty, but because of their natural behaviour in the ordinary course of the voyage.”

“A cargo seized by pirates and subsequently recovered after being ransomed by the shipowner was not ‘irretrievably lost’ within the terms of section 57(1) of the Marine Insurance Act 1906, even though some might regard the payment of a ransom as morally objectionable and it was something the owner was not required to do.”

“An arbitral tribunal in assessing damages for breach of contract had been wrong to treat a claim for wasted expenses and a claim for loss of profits as two separate and independent claims which could not be ‘mixed’. Both claims were governed by the principle which required the court to make a comparison between the claimant’s current position and what it would have been had the contract been performed. Where steps had been taken to mitigate the loss which would otherwise have been caused by a breach of contract that principle required the benefits obtained by mitigation to be set against the loss which would otherwise have been sustained.”

“A requirement in a charterparty for the owner to indemnify the charterer against claims resulting from loss or damage in relation to the vessel was not limited to a requirement for the owner to reimburse claims against the charterer by third parties but precluded the owner from recovering damages from the charterer in respect of the charterer’s own negligence. It followed that where it was alleged that the charterer and a third party had jointly caused damage to the vessel whilst it was berthed in Scotland and, because of the indemnity agreement, the owner sued only the third party in the Scots courts, the third party would not be able to claim a contribution under s 3(2) of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1940 from the charterer as a ‘person who, if sued, might also have been held liable’.”